CHAPTER 6

The New Board: 1864-1920

The Board of Public Works created by the 1864 Constitution did not come officially
into being until 4 January 1865. In the meantime the commissioners continued to
meet and attend to their business. They appointed directors in the various railroads
and the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company, directed increases in the tolls charged
by the C & O, and sought federal aid in repairing damage done to the canal by Union
troops. On 4 January 1865 the commissioners met for the last time, at the State House
in Annapolis, and adjourned sine die. The new Board of Public Works met and or-
ganized the same day. As its first act, the members chose as secretary of the board
Chapman Harwood, a former state—appointed director of the Baltimore and Ohio Rail-
road Company.¹

Although the new Constitution expressly permitted the General Assembly to del-
egate to the board some very general authority over the "public works" of the state,
it seems clear that the focus was on the management of the existing railroads and
canal and bridge companies and not on any other types of "public works." Except for
the State House, the governor's mansion, and the penitentiary, there were few public
buildings or institutions in existence, and neither the convention debates nor the acts
of the legislature in the succeeding two sessions reveal any anticipation or desire that
very many would be developed.

Thus it was that, for the three-year duration of the 1864 Constitution, the board
did little more than the commissioners had formerly done. It appointed directors and
concerned itself generally with the problems and affairs of the railroads and other
improvement companies. Despite all of the rhetoric and debate about the need to
dispose of the state investments promptly, not one share of stock and not one bond
was sold or exchanged during the life of the 1864 Constitution. The board did on
occasion solicit the advice of the attorney general—a resource not available to the
commissioners—although it did not always follow his advice and sometimes ignored
him in favor of the prominent Baltimore attorney William Schley.²

1. BPW Minutes, 23 March 1864-4 January 1865, vol. 1851-83, pp. 156-68.

2. The first legal matter coming before the board was not referred to the attorney general. The House of
Delegates, on 27 February 1865, directed the board to investigate the condition of the Annapolis and Elkridge
Railroad Company and to institute such legal proceedings as would elicit a full discovery of all its operations,
enforce payment of certain obligations, and procure a judicial construction of Acts of 1841, ch. 168, which
set up procedures for payment of the company's creditors. For that purpose the board employed William
Schley as counsel. Schley was also employed by the C & 0 to institute proceedings in the name of the state
to enjoin certain attachment proceedings against the C & O for the purpose of protecting the state's mortgage
lien on the property sought to be attached. See BPW Minutes, 5 April, 5 July 1865, vol. 1851-83, pp. 170,
172-74.

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